We all know that today, April 15th, is the deadline to file our tax returns. That day also brings out a lot of resentment in people who don’t like paying taxes. There are even annual demonstrations against the income tax. I am sorry, but I do not share this aversion to the income tax. Sure, I would not mind if I did not have to pay taxes, but in the end I pay taxes happily for a number of reasons. Let me list the most important here.

1. My taxes pay for things that I could not or would not want to afford as an individual. I would not want to be responsible for the roads that lead from my house to my place of work. I would not want to employ my own security force to keep me safe from possible attackers. I would not want to maintain a large enough property to serve as my park. As you can imagine, this list goes on and on. I am much happier that I am paying some money into a pot that collects money from all of us and that pays for services that I cannot provide myself or would not want to provide myself.

2. My household income is high enough that I have to pay a nice chunk of taxes. I would not want to belong to the poorer groups of society who are exempt from taxes or pay very little because they barely scrape by in life.

3. There are members of our society who cannot get by on their own for one reason or another, and I’m happy and even quite proud to say that part of my income helps them to survive with a little dignity. Let’s use an analogy that I hope is not offensive, but bear with me a bit. Taller people make more money on average than not so tall people. (If you don’t like using height as an example, substitute it with your choice of sex, race, body weight, or any number of other factors that have a positive correlation with income.) One’s height is not really one’s own doing. We are pretty much born with the likelihood to grow to a certain height (the average of our parents’ height, say). We may be able to improve on our endowment a little bit with proper nutrition and such, but for the most part our obtainable height is set when we are born. Now, if I am lucky enough to be one of the tall people and if I do indeed make more money as a result of my height, why would I not want to share a little with people who are not born with the same endowment and who need a little help getting by? Analogy complete. Instead of griping about the taxes I am paying that get redistributed by the government to the less fortunate, I count myself blessed that I am not one of the people who need help getting by. I am privileged enough that I can do it all by myself. I can feel very proud of that – and lucky. What is so bad about that?

If you have any other good reasons to be glad about taxes that you wish to add to this list, please let me know!
.
.
.

Tags: paying taxes